Refuge
by Hemlock Dalise
Summary: Sequel to Salvation. Sunstorm's landing on Earth was just the beginnning of his story... Semi-Hiatus due to crippling writer's block.
1. Awakening

_**A/N: **__**Alas, Sunstorm's troubles are not over. He is a seeker after all, and you badgered me so much I thought I'd dredge my poor brain for a sequel. This may ruin the story entirely, which is why I'm keeping it separate from the original, but you asked for it. **_

_**Without further ado, I give you **_**Refuge**_**…**_

Sunstorm had come to the conclusion that Primus himself had made this planet for him. He had quickly grown accustomed to the organic nature of the world, and with the demise of Megatron he was no longer tied to the Decepticons by Shockwave's programming (and they were all too scared of him to hunt him down anyway).

So he was free to live out the remainder of his vorns on a planet that he could not harm. A planet where he could touch and be touched with no fear of pain, no Autobots shooting at him, no people running and hiding as soon as they saw him. Okay, that last one still happened, but it was getting less frequent.

When Ratchet had found him deep in recharge with the human younglings on his abdominal plating he had taken a few image captures, then left them to it as the humans were obviously coming to no harm. The analysis of Sunstorm's energy provided by the banks of computers sustaining the forcefield proved his hypothesis correct – Earth creatures' sparks were so intricately tied to their bodies and such a strange energy format that Sunstorm's unique power core did not affect them. The only noticeable difference between him and another cybertronian to a human was the warmth of his plating.

When he awoke Sunstorm had felt better than he could ever remember feeling, and looked down with a smile to the little organics recharging on his abdominal plates once he remembered that they were there. He had never known how comfortable the touch of another could be.

Ratchet was standing outside the forcefield still, and took another image capture of Sunstorm's expression – he looked like a creator with his first sparklings – before tapping on the forcefield, the waves of light getting Sunstorm's attention easily.

"You've been fully repaired, and I brought energon," Ratchet placed a glowing pink cube next to the forcefield, and an ingenious system similar to an airlock pushed it inside without breaking containment. "However, we need to discuss what will become of you. Are you aware of the loss of the Allspark, and Megatron's demise?"

"… No, I was not." As he said the words, Sunstorm could feel the programming loosen its hold on his processor, no longer bound to obey every order to destroy Primus's creations given by that – and now he could think it – insane mech. "There is no reason for me to fight, so what is to become of me?"

"Well, you can't stay here. I know how you seekers get after a few days without flying." Ratchet pondered the dilemma, how could Sunstorm be kept far enough away that they would be unharmed but close enough to keep an eye on? "You could always go back into space, back to Cybertron…"

Sunstorm unconsciously tightened his body around the recharging humans. "Mightn't I stay on this planet? I swear on the spark Primus gave me that I will do no harm to you and your factionmates. The destruction of any of Primus's children is a terrible loss…"

"..And yet you had no trouble incinerating legions of us before now. Why is this?" Ratchet was sceptical.

"I was built by Shockwave, and he in his undying loyalty to _Megatron_-" The name was hissed as if Sunstorm were referring to the unmaker himself, "set programming in place so that I must obey any of his orders. He is deactivated, so I am free." The words felt good on his glossa. Finally, free from the endless cycle of death and destruction.

"I see. I'll want to do a full scan of your processor to make sure, and check for any booby traps Shockwave might have sent you with." This would require Sunstorm to be in stasis for Ratchet to get close enough to perform the scan.

"Of course. Is there anything you could do to keep other Cybertronians away? I do not wish to be melting innocent bystanders." Sunstorm, nudged Sam and Mikaela, but they just rolled over and snuggled in closer.

"I suppose a signal field wouldn't be hard to rig up to your systems, I could do it while you're still out after that processor scan, if you like?" Ratchet offered, quickly expanding on the idea "It would give anyone within, say, a kilometre of you a ping so that they could get out of your way."

"Yes, that is a good idea, but I was thinking of the barriers like this one." Sunstorm tapped the field between himself and Ratchet. "I have seen shuttles equipped with them."

"Shuttles, yes! Those fields aren't suitable for anyone smaller to use, the sheer drain in power would collapse anyone else before the converters could kick in to power them with starlight." Ratchet paused, looking sidelong at Sunstorm as an idea occurred to him.

"Power drain is not much of a problem, medic, as long as it is temporary." Sunstorm's energy field flared as he grinned smugly at Ratchet.

"Yes, of course. The field would be much smaller though, about a hundred metres in radius, and I bet I could rig it so you could control the edges – wouldn't want you to accidentally crush your new friends." Ratchet gestured to the drowsing Sam and Mikaela as Mikaela was finally roused by the sound of voices and muzzily prodded Sam awake.

"Ratchet!" Sam nearly fell off Sunstorm's plating. "Uh, we have an explanation, um, because we have a perfectly good reason to be in your medbay on the wrong side of the field containing a dangerous mech… Okay, we have no excuse. Please don't kill us?"

Mikaela facepalmed.

Sunstorm cupped his hands around the humans and glared at Ratchet, flaring his wings and shoulder plating to appear bigger. "You will not harm them."

Ratchet's vocal processors spat static as he tried to find words.

Sam saved the day, by scrambling up on Sunstorm's hands and pushing at his fingers until he paid attention, "Whoa, whoa! Figure of speech, he won't actually kill us, he'll just be very angry."

Sunstorm deflated. "Your planet is confusing." He directed at the diminuitive organic.

Sam laughed "We know, we have to live here." He patted Sunstorm's wrist. "Now how about letting us down so Ratchet can stop giving us that glare of doom?"

Sunstorm carefully cupped the two humans in his hands before lowering them to the floor, leaving him free to stand up, stretch, and pick up his energon cube. He did so, wings flaring and plating rattling as he shook off debris and sand that had accumulated from the area.

Sam and Mikaela laughed at Sunstorm's impression of a dusty cat, but Ratchet pressed a button and they were shunted through the forcefield unexpectedly in a pile of tangled limbs.

"And what have we learned?" Ratchet asked, hands on hips.

"Don't mess with the medic," Sam said, raising an arm and trying to sit up from his sprawled position half under Mikaela. "And Sunstorm makes an excellent mattress."

Ratchet grumbled before shooing the pair of them out of the medbay, glad it was their Easter break.

He turned back to the seeker, who was demurely sipping his energon. "Right then. I'll get a forcefield installed along with a locator beacon. Where will you stay? We can't keep you on base - forcefield or not you'd melt the place within a week, and none of the tech from Cybertron works properly around you."

"…May I stay near the humans? They do not seem to live here with you, they must live somewhere. And I would not disrupt their machinery." Sunstorm swirled his energon, not looking at Ratchet, and was startled when another organic bustled into the room.

"What's this I hear about a refugee, Ratchet?" Judy Witwicky, who had apparently caught the tail of the conversation, prodded the giant robot in the ankle joint whilst Sunstorm looked on in confusion.

"He's not a refugee, he's a former decepticon." Ratchet pointed out, "And stop doing that!" He moved his ankle out of the way of the woman's nimble fingers.

"He's got nowhere to go, sounds like a refugee to me." Judy retorted, scooting forwards to attack sensory cables again "And I'm not giving up now that I've found an exploitable weakness. Who knew giant alien robots were ticklish?"

"I give in!" Ratchet plucked Judy up off the floor. "Accursed organic female," he grumbled.

Judy gave him a winning smile.

Ratchet held Judy in an open palmed hand and pointed at the seeker behind the forcefield with the other hand. "Judy Witwicky, meet Sunstorm. He was apparently under the control of Shockwave but is now free, and has a spark mutation which means that he can't go near other Cybertronians or our equipment without causing malfunctions and death. Sunstorm, this is Judy Witwicky, female co-creator of the male human that was recharging on your abdominal plating."

"It is an honour." Sunstorm inclined his head over his energon.

Judy giggled. "Well aren't you the gentleman! It's nice to meet you too." She turned back to Ratchet, "He let Sam sleep on top of him, and didn't squish him?"

Ratchet nodded.

Judy nodded sharply. "Then it's settled, you're coming home with us!"

"I'm what?"

"He's what?!"

Ratchet was the first to recover, "Judy, where do you propose to house him? He can't live in your garage with Bumblebee. Poor 'Bee would melt!"

Judy clapped her hands together "There's an abandoned barn, at least I think it's a barn, about a mile and a half from our house – you know we're right on the outskirts of the town we moved to so Sam and Mikaela could set up shop with you guys."

Ratchet stared at Judy incredulously, "You know, that might actually work. I'll have to install a more precise locator chip in Sunstorm so that he and Bumblebee don't keep setting off proximity alerts, if you don't mind, Sunstorm?"

"I am amenable." Sunstorm finished his cube and dispersed it. "Perhaps we should get the procedures over with now, before any more interruptions occur?"

Ratchet laughed and agreed. He shooed Judy out of the door, promising to tell her when he was finished, then sent a stasis command code to Sunstorm.

Sunstorm acknowledged the line of code from Ratchet and allowed the remote activation of his stasis sequence, the most logical choice since Ratchet could not use the more common manual method. The last thing he saw as his optics powered down was the behemoth Ironhide entering the room as the forcefield dissipated, leaving him at the mercy of the autobots.

_**A/N: To be continued, hopefully soon! This chapter was mostly explanations and setting up for the rest of the big sequel, it'll get more interesting from here on out!**_

_**R+R if you please, and don't forget to answer the poll in my profile. Remember, the more reviews I get, the more ideas for the story I get! People are inspiring!**_

_**And can someone tell me how to put line breaks in here?**_


	2. Homecoming

_**A/N: It is true, I'm afraid. One can write well, or draw well, but never both (discounting poetry). I draw. I can see what I want to say, I know what happens, but when I begin to write I have all the skills of a **__**12-year-old who learned grammar from the internet. /lament**_

_**Sorry this is late. And short. And junky. RL ate me, and will probably still be clawing away at my writing time and sanity for a few months yet. On with the story.**_

Sunstorm woke under open sky, and flight instincts had him powering up his thrusters and pressurising hydraulics before he had properly processed the fact that he had stood up. He took off with a leap and roar of flame, and shot across the base in less than a second. The atmosphere of this world was light and cool against his sensors, and the star it orbited warmed his plating.

Ratchet shaded his optics against the sun and watched the golden jet dance, sunlight glinting off his chassis and resonating with his energy field to make him shine as brightly as a shooting star. He sat back to admire the skydance – he knew this could take some time.

Sunstorm flew for more than an hour, glorying in the freedom of flight, the wind over his ailerons, and the wonderful feeling of going where he wanted without the weight of the tyrant's orders on his wings. By the time he dropped to a graceful landing in front of Ratchet he had gathered quite an audience, all watching from a safe distance of course, and they seemed to have been briefed while he was unconscious as, rather than shooting at him, many of them sent pings to his comm. system to welcome him and praise his flight. Others glared suspiciously, but no weapons were raised.

Ratchet nodded at Sunstorm's landing, looking at the datapad in his hand. "Sunstorm, your processor came up clean and I removed the code lines Shockwave added, but we need to finalise the checks on your shielding. Could you activate it please?"

Still giddy from his flight, Sunstorm did so and the blue barrier pulsed into existence with a grunt of effort. Ratchet's engineering skills were up to scratch, and besides the initial drain the field was self-sustaining.

Ratchet threw a half-brick at the field, checking off something on the datapad when it bounced off. "Right, it adjusts the power supply to account for outside force, so it should be able to stand up to any surprise encounters, and you can make it gas permeable so any organics in the radius can breathe if you're in there for a long time. Try and draw the edge up a little for me?"

Sunstorm nodded and accessed the protocols, creating a little archway in the field just big enough for a human to enter, then lifting the entire edge away from the ground by a foot.

Ratchet subspaced his datapad. "Brilliant. You can shrink the radius on it as well, but that takes more energy. Keep it online for the time being, and I'll get you over to where the humans and Bumblebee are waiting to show you the hangar they've been working on for you."

At the entrance to the base was Bumblebee, in his alt mode, with the humans sitting on his bonnet. At Sunstorm and Ratchet's approach they stopped talking and looked up.

"Hey Ratch, all set to go?"

"Yes Sam, Sunstorm's upgrades went well. Bumblebee, those nanites I gave you will only protect you from Sunstorm's energy for short bursts. Thirty minutes full exposure is as long as you get before they are beyond regeneration." Ratchet glared at Bumblebee, as if daring him to come back with burns.

Bumblebee played a clip of a raspberry at Ratchet, then cringed back on his shocks when he got a wrench waved at his windscreen.

Sam hopped down and ran to the edge of Sunstorm's forcefield. "Come on man, let's go! Just wait until you see what we've done with the place. It still needs work, but you'll love it." If Sunstorm had skirts, he would have been tugging them.

Bumblebee honked and popped open the driver and passenger doors, allowing Mikaela and Sam to get in, then set off driving towards the refitted barn they had been working on making habitable.

Sunstorm, with a last look to Ratchet and a ping of _thanks-joy-family_, dropped the field, ignited his thrusters, and followed the yellow autobot from the air until he spotted the elder female – Judy – waving from in front of a large (for the little organics) structure. The rush of air from his landing nearly blew her over.

Judy laughed and braced against the barn, picking bits of leaf litter out of her hair. "My, you can really make an entrance! Well, come on in. We've fixed a lot of the roof, so you've at least got somewhere dry while we work out everything else."

Sunstorm was glad to see that they had kept the original door, so he could fit through with only a slight duck and flutter of his wings. What he saw inside made him stop, and wonder at how the tiny squishy creatures had managed to do all of that.

The loft of the barn had been knocked through, leaving only a walkway around the edge at head height for the humans to stand on. The whole barn had been insulated and heat exchangers installed, and perhaps most importantly the roof had been replaced with a sheet of cybertronian crystal at the end where an energon converter, berth and entertainment console had been arranged. The crystal was much more durable than the human building materials, and would allow Sunstorm to see the sky – goodness knew a hangar could feel like a bunker if it didn't have a skylight.

The afternoon sun sent beams down through the crystal and the gaps in the boards to shine on the floor, still covered in wisps of hay which danced in the breeze from the open doors, and seemed to ignite the pile of rusted metal and farm implements tucked in one corner.

"It is perfect. Thankyou, Judy Witwicky." Sunstorm knelt to speak to the beaming organic. "How did you do all of this? I cannot have been with the autobots for more than a few solar cycles."

Judy giggled "It's not me you need to thank, silly. Sam and Mikaela, heck nearly every human in the town, helped – and I borrowed Ironhide as well as Bumblebee to do your roof."

Sunstorm smiled, refraining from laughing at the image of the fearsome warrior being ordered around by the bright-haired female. He had a feeling she could do it, too. "I am glad. It is good to know I am welcome somewhere."

Judy smiled and patted him on the leg. "Well you can always call this home." She pronounced, ignoring the slight flinch.

Sunstorm forcibly relaxed the cables in his leg, reminding himself that the organics would not spontaneously combust. "Thankyou." He murmured, sitting down fully just as he registered the sound of a car pulling up and a transformation sequence.

Bumblebee gently pushed open the large door, allowing the children through first before trotting in himself. Sunstorm smiled - the lucky minibot didn't even have to duck to get through the opening.

Sam trotted over to Sunstorm and leaned on one of the support beams for the walkway, "So whaddaya think big guy? There's still a lot to do, but it's a start, right?"

"I think I will like it here." Sunstorm smiled down at the organic boy, shifting slightly to look at him properly and sending up a little puff of straw-dust as he did so.

Sam sneezed.

Sunstorm recoiled from the boy, wings flattening against his back with a clatter and scans running frantically to determine the nature of the aerosols that the organic had expelled so violently. Was it toxic? Was the organic suffering some sort of arc-out in its processors?

Bumblebee whirred and shook with silent laughter, understanding Sunstorm's reaction but finding it hilarious nonetheless. "Don't worry, be happy!"

Judy and Mikaela stifled their giggles and looked from the bemused Sam, who was sitting plopped in the dust from the force of his sneeze and Sunstorm's reaction, to Sunstorm, who was now staring at Bumblebee as if the minibot was missing some vital pieces. "It's just a sneeze Sunstorm. Humans don't have filters, so we get rid of things that we breathe in by sneezing or coughing."

Sunstorm googled it, then just as quickly as he had recoiled bolted forwards, scanners running all over Sam, who stood stock still.

"Uh, big guy? What're you doing?"

"Your species is too fragile! These sternutations can cause irreparable damage to your central processor or main fluid pump-" Sunstorm's scans flickered out "-although this time you have been lucky."

Mikaela patted Sunstorm on the leg. "Sunstorm, humans don't generally die by sneezing. That sort of thing is really rare and not likely to happen to Sam."

"You are certain? This website is reputable, and is widely used."

"What is it?"

"'Cracked dot com'"

Mikaela blinked as Sam joined Bumblebee in cracking up. "Sunstorm, that website does use factual content in their articles, but they overdramatise everything, and it's all for fun. Don't use that as an actual information source anymore."

Sunstorm stared at them for a minute, then offlined his optics and shook his head. "I will never understand this planet."

All too soon Bumblebee's time ran out, and as he was the only transport around the humans left with him, Judy placing a kiss on his faceplate as they bade him goodnight.

Sunstorm gazed out of his roof at the slowly darkening sky, and watched as, one by one, the distant stars lit the sky. He wondered for a while which way Cybertron was, since it didn't have a star of its own to see, but turned away from the sky as he settled down to recharge, content that he had more of a home here than he had ever had on Cybertron.

_**A/N: I think that makes a nice ending there, personally. So, do I continue it in this story, or in a new one, since either way the next piece will likely be set in a couple of months' time? **_

_**As always, review please! Constructive criticism is most welcome – did it read easily, was it too much of an infodump in places, anything you like.**_


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